How many Starships are they making right now? Handy visual chart.

[glhs837]

So, unlike Old Spic.... I mean Old Space, where you bulld crazy expensive Faberge eggs of spacecraft, only to throw them away, the intention is to build a thousand or more Starships. Cant do that using clean rooms and hand carved bespoke pieces of aluminum 30 feet long and CNC milled. You need a production line, more akin to auto or shipbuilding. This chart shows the stage of completion of the test articles currently under production/test. Not that 13 and 14 are mostly not built. That's because they really expected more losses in test. SN8, the one that crashed, did so well, they need fewer test articles. So those are going to never be built. SN15 will incorporate a lot of what they have learned these last 18 months. Potentially being the first one to go orbital before the end of this year. 9,10,11, and maybe 12 will all expand the suborbital envelope and hone the stage/launch/land/turnaround processes. Since the goal is for a Starship to be ready to launch again days or even hours after landing.

Note the big booster, BN1, is only eight rings and the tail section away from being complete, expect it to fly hops in the next 2-3 months at most. That things static fire will be a challenge, with I think 23 Raptors.....

 

[Sneakers]

It really is a radical change in the way space travel is being approached. In the past, incredible amounts of money were spent designing a 'foolproof', 'accident is not an option' vehicle. Now, it's 'ok, lets push this until it fails just to see what it can do.' and take lessons from it, with a much lower overall cost.

Reminds me a lot of Star Trek, where Cochrane built a space vehicle in his backyard compound with a rag tag group of scientists, and discovered warp drive. I see those days ahead.

 

[glhs837]

It really is a radical change in the way space travel is being approached. In the past, incredible amounts of money were spent designing a 'foolproof', 'accident is not an option' vehicle. Now, it's 'ok, lets push this until it fails just to see what it can do.' and take lessons from it, with a much lower overall cost.

Reminds me a lot of Star Trek, where Cochrane built a space vehicle in his backyard compound with a rag tag group of scientists, and discovered warp drive. I see those days ahead.

Most likely less than two and a half years from first "flight", which was a hop with this guy.....welded rings made of individual plates, to orbital flights. Once they get that, next step will be orbital refuelling using two of them. And a lunar flyby for that Japanese guy....

 

[stgislander]

Most likely less than two and a half years from first "flight", which was a hop with this guy.....welded rings made of individual plates, to orbital flights. Once they get that, next step will be orbital refuelling using two of them. And a lunar flyby for that Japanese guy.... View attachment 154361

Reminds me of Salvage 1. Where's Andy Griffith?

 

[glhs837]

Reminds me of Salvage 1. Where's Andy Griffith?

Thats two of the best parts. One is that folks at OS looked at that and laughed, mocking it as a grain silo or water tank. They are not laughing now. The other is that they literally hired guy who had been welding water tanks and other stuff to weld spaceships. You cant build spaceships that way!!!

 

[glhs837]

While looking over the latest video "tour" by a local who basically records anything she can all day, was amused by the work platform attached to SN10 inside the high bay at the level of the common dome.

 

[spr1975wshs]

View attachment 154360

Looks a lot like deck plan drawings from my Traveller SF RPG materials.

 

[glhs837]

Looks a lot like deck plan drawings from my Traveller SF RPG materials.

Amazing how simple they are, really. Thats one thing that makes his drawings possible is that thanks to SpaceXs open nature, we get to see every component either come of the one of the fabrications "tents" or arrive on a truck, and they all have what ship they belong to written on them in Sharpie. They assemble them right in these open bays, so it's easy to see them come together.

 

[stgislander]

Amazing how simple they are, really. Thats one thing that makes his drawings possible is that thanks to SpaceXs open nature, we get to see every component either come of the one of the fabrications "tents" or arrive on a truck, and they all have what ship they belong to written on them in Sharpie. They assemble them right in these open bays, so it's easy to see them come together.

Is the postponed test fire scheduled for today?

 

[glhs837]

Was, but has been cancelled for today, might be on for tomorrow.

 

[stgislander]

Was, but has been cancelled for today, might be on for tomorrow.

Did they ever say why the static fire was cancelled last Friday?

 

[glhs837]

Did they ever say why the static fire was cancelled last Friday?

No, they did not.

 

[stgislander]

I think SN9 is jinxed. Three static test fire attempts today and all aborted.

Maybe they need to roll it back into the barn, and give SN10 a shot.

 

[glhs837]

Well, given we don't know what they are testing, we don't know that these aborts are failures..... I mean those first ones last week, where they swapped out two engines, yeah. But these others might be testing where the aborts are planned in.